


caught in the moment

by Nadin



Category: Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, steve can be such a man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 13:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15607101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nadin/pseuds/Nadin
Summary: WonderTrev Love Week 2018Day 4 - Hurt/Comfort“Men do stupid things for love,” Steve noted philosophically.Diana hummed, “I’m sure men don’t need an excuse to do stupid things.”Diana takes care of Steve after he gets into a fight





	caught in the moment

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is my personal favourite of all of my prompts. I had entirely too much fun writing it

“What were you thinking?” Diana asked without much sympathy.

To be completely fair, Steve didn’t necessarily expect any other kind of gratitude for trying to defend her honour against some leering asshole who didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself and his mouth shut around a lady. Not that she needed it, strictly speaking, and maybe he should have thought twice before taking her to that bar in the first place. But Diana had asked – out of curiosity, Steve suspected. And what was he supposed to do? Stand and watch some drunk moron ogle her?

“Just say you think I’m an idiot,” he grumbled, closing the front door and following her into the living room.

“I am not going to argue,” she noted, surveying the damage without fondness.

Steve rolled his eyes and winced, even something as small causing a jolt of pain to shoot through his head. The good news was that all of his teeth were intact and his nose had stopped gushing and his brain no longer felt like it was bumping randomly against the walls of his skull. That being said, he was going to pay dearly for playing a knight in shining armour for a woman who could probably rip that guy’s head off without breaking a sweat.

So much for being a gentleman.

The problem was, she was _his_ woman, and whether Diana liked it or not, there was a certain degree of pride attached to it. His father used to joke that it came with owning, well, man parts, and there was no way around it. Which was a nice way to put it. Hence, the blood on his shirt and what felt like a very swollen lip although Steve wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He walked past the hallway mirror not daring to look.

What he knew for a fact was that he didn’t regret it. Even though Diana’s pursed lips weren’t exactly the reaction he’d expected.  

“You know, a simple thank you would’ve been enough,” he called after her.

He flopped down onto the couch, a strangled groan rising from the back of his throat. Come to think of it, maybe he did have a concussion. He grimaced and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. The room swayed for a moment and then settled. One of his ribs didn’t feel so hot either, but Steve hoped that it was nothing. He’d had it worse.

“You are such a man,” Diana said.

He popped one eye open, watching her cross the room, a first aid kit that she retrieved from the kitchen in one hand and a glass of scotch in another, her expression displeased beyond words.

“Taking pride in petty things,” she added when his brows pulled together in a slight puzzlement, seeing as how her comment encompassed too many things that he could think of.

Steve’s jaw dropped. “Hey, I was trying to be chivalrous,” he protested, ignoring the growing discomfort in the left side of his face.

Diana smirked. She walked over to the couch and studied him for a moment before heaving a put-upon resigned sigh. He tried not to take her lack of appreciation for his gesture – which wasn’t, admittedly, a good idea – too close to his heart. She shook her head and pressed one knee into a cushion, tossing her other leg over his thighs until she was straddling his lap.

Steve made a reach for the scotch but she drew her hand away.

“This is not for you,” she said, taking a sip, her gaze holding his.

He watched it travel down her throat before she set the glass on a table by the armrest.

“Now you’re just being mean,” he said.

She set the first aid kit down and reached for his chin, turning his face this way and that, her eyes roaming over his face. Her fingers brushing through his hair and skimmed down his cheek as she considered the damage, two faint lines appearing between her eyebrows.

“What were you thinking?” She repeated, and this time it didn’t sound rhetorical.

“He had no business talking to you the way he did,” Steve responded heatedly.

He touched the bridge of his nose gingerly, but while the pain was still throbbing all the way into the top of his head that hurt like hell after getting closely acquainted with a wall, it was hardly the end of the world. The sickening crunch he had heard as they tossed their fists around must have been his doing. A sense of perverse satisfaction made him smile. At least he’d be able to say freely– _You should see the other guy_.

Diana was right, this was dumb.

“I can take care of myself,” she noted, biting back a smile and pushing his hand away. “Let me see.” He fingers, cool and very gentle, ran over the bridge of his nose. He flinched but didn’t move away from her touch. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

“It’s not,” he confirmed. “And if you were taking care of herself, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. I was just trying to be considerate.” Steve paused, thinking for a moment. “In fact, I was protecting _him_ from your wrath.” He trailed off. “You know what? I just saw it in my mind and it’s a nice image and the next time you’re on your own.”

Diana bit her lip, trying not to grin.

“You’re so ridiculous, Steve Trevor.”

“But you like me anyway,” he offered, beaming up at her – a smile that turned into a grimace when it stretched too wide.

She smirked. “I’m still not clear on why.”

Steve watched her reach for the first aid kit and unzip the bag, lean fingers rummaging through its contents. He could think of a few things, he decided. They clicked. They clicked in a way he never knew was possible. He made her laugh, she made him feel alive, and small as those things might seem, they were worth something. Everything, if he was honest with himself. And maybe she didn’t need him to protect her, strictly speaking – god knew, she was miles ahead of him with that one – he couldn’t just stand there and have some asshole have a go at her just because she was a woman and he felt like she owed him her attention.

He would have done that for anyone, frankly. Any man with an ounce of decency in his body would have in his place. Surely she didn’t expect him to just take it?

She was beautiful, and people stared, which she usually found mildly amusing. She had explained to him a long time ago that on Themyscira, the inner qualities stood above any sort of physical attractiveness and his world’s obsession with it was puzzling to her. But looking was one thing. Given a chance, he’d star at her 24/7 as well. Lewd comments, on the other hand, were something else entirely.

There was no way he was going to ignore them.

Diana pressed a gauze soaked in alcohol to his brow and he hissed when burning pain spread across the cut he didn’t even know he had.

She caught his chin with her other hand before he managed to flinch away from her. “Don’t be such a baby,” she instructed without pity, but her touch softened.

Steve scowled. “You wouldn’t do that to a baby,” he grumbled.  

“A baby wouldn’t start a bar fight,” she countered, but without malice. He could see the corners of her mouth twitch ever so slightly as she fought against a smile.

“It was your idea to go there,” Steve reminded her.

Diana paused, incredulous. “So, are you saying it was my fault?”

“No, I’m not—” He huffed out a breath. “What would you have done?” He demanded.

A hand still curled over his jaw, she leaned forward and blew on the cut, the pain seeping out of it almost instantly. She smelled of his soap and her perfume, and Steve momentarily lost the train of their conversation. When she drew back, her eyes were crinkling with amusement, but he saw a thinly veiled worry in her eyes, hiding behind the veneer of frustration, and his defensiveness drained out of him in a second.  

“Better?” She asked, her eyes drifting down to his.

He slid his palms up her thighs until they were resting on her hips, tugging her closer. If he didn’t feel like shit now, he was going to very soon. It wasn’t his first rodeo, after all. But having Diana sit in his lap while her hands moved gently over the planes of his face was worth it, a thousand times over.

She arched a pointed eyebrow at him, waiting.

“Yeah, much.” Steve cleared his throat but didn’t remove his hands.

“Well, I would have used words,” she offered, reaching for a band-aid.

“Where’s fun in that?” He deadpanned. “Besides—ow!” He scowled at her when she smoothed it out over his brow a little too forcefully.

“You were saying?” Diana asked impassively.

“Don’t I get _any_ points for trying to defend your honour?”

She blinked at him for a moment, and then laughed. “My _honour_?”

He made a face, not sure how to explain to her that he was trying to do a good thing, a noble one even. At the very least, his heart was in the right place. All he life, she wanted to fight a good fight. Surely, she could understand that?

Not that a bar fight could ever be qualified as such, but--

Without waiting for his response, she pushed away from him and stood up.

Steve’s eyes widened. “No, no,” he made a grab for her, but his fingers brushed against thin air. “Come back,” he called sadly after her. “I’ll be good.”

Ignoring him, Diana turned on her heel and walked out of the room. From his spot, he could hear her go through a cupboard or something.

“I’m sure my honour was in no danger,” she noted, returning a few moments later with a pack of frozen carrots wrapped in a kitchen towel.

A freezer then.

She slid habitually into his lap, her thighs bracketing Steve’s, and pressed it to his left cheekbone. This time, his hands closed around her waist without hesitation. Not that it could have stopped her if she decided to pull away from him, but at least he had made his wishes known.

“Men do stupid things for love,” he noted philosophically.  

She hummed. “I’m sure men don’t need an excuse to do stupid things.” He didn’t argue. “Hold this,” she instructed, reaching for her glass to take another sip of her scotch, and he obliged without argument, pressing the cool carrots against his skin.

“You know what I mean,” Steve grumbled as she reached for a fresh gauze and poured a generous amount of alcohol on it. “Did you expect me to stand back and let some asshole grab my—” he faltered.

“Your what?” Diana tilted her head, a little curious, and very amused, her hand frozen near his face.

He cleared his throat again, a façade of indignation falling from his face. He swallowed.

Words never came easily when she was looking at him like this.

“You.”

She touched the gauze to the corner of his mouth – he didn’t even know it was that bad, save for the lip that felt raw and swollen. So far, his imagination wasn’t painting a pretty picture and Steve silently vowed to avoid mirrors for a week for fear of having his suspicions confirmed.

Her lips curved upward, forming into a smile, and his heart slammed against his ribcage. His other hand flexed on her side, curling around the fabric of her shirt, tugging her closer still, which Diana ignored.

“Your me,” she echoed, her hand still moving slowly over the corner of his mouth. It didn’t even hurt. “Who knew you could be so romantic, Captain Trevor?”

“Hey, I can be romantic!” Steve protested, which came out muffled. “I just beat up a guy for you, how’s that not romantic?”

“I would argue that he beat you up,” she said sympathetically.

“Give me some credit,” he muttered, wounded.

Her smile slipped then, and she bit into her lip. Familiar anguish chased across her face. Steve had seen it before and he never liked it. His stomach twisted. There were times when he could easily pretend that theirs was an easy path, straight as an arrow. On the days when their past felt like something that had happened to somebody else, he almost believed it.

And then a shadow would cross her face, the touch of her hands growing frantic, and Steve would remember how narrowly he missed never having this life with her at all. Would remember her face hovering over him when they found him in the field miles away from the airbase among the charred remnants of the plane scattered around him, long dead in their minds. How she touched him them, like he could break, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“It wasn’t romantic. It was reckless and thoughtless.” Her eyes found his, a little tired and slightly less panicked but worried nonetheless. “You could have been hurt.”

“You know, this,” he gestured at his face, “doesn’t feel as nice as it probably looks.”

His joke fell flat.

“You could have been seriously hurt,” she murmured.

Steve swallowed, the throbbing in his temple that kept pulsing into the center of his skull for the past hour finally subsiding to something more manageable. His mind started to clear at all, adrenalize draining from his blood and fatigue taking its place. Fatigue and guilt.  

He sighed. “I’m sorry.” He set the frozen carrots down on the couch cushion beside him and reached for her, his fingers curling around her waist. “I have no idea what I was thinking.”

“You weren’t,” Diana pointed out.

“I wasn’t,” he agreed, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, which hurt just enough to remind him to maybe not do it again for a while. “Although, in my defence, you’re making it hard for me to think straight. Have you met you? You’re pretty amazing.”

Her smile stretched wider. “Better.”

His brows pulled together and she added, “At being romantic.”

“I can be romantic,” Steve repeated, his palms sliding up her back and toward her shoulder blades, drawing her closer to him.

Diana let him. She set down the gauze and brushed her fingers through his hair, her eyes swiping over his face once more before locking with his gaze. “I know,” she whispered, closing what little place was still left between them. “I think you’re plenty romantic.”

Her lips brushed very gently to the corner of his mouth that didn’t suffer much. It was a good thing perhaps that the other guy was unimaginative in his punching.

A soft sigh escapes Steve's chest.

“I can do better than bar fights,” he promised, turning his head and kissing her properly, Diana’s hand sliding from his hair to the back of his neck, nails scratching against his skin. A low growl forms in the back of his throat, pain smearing into pleasure.

She tugged at his hair, and his lips moved toward her jaw, inching slowly toward her throat. “I had to have done something right if you’re still here,” he murmured into her skin. She hummed, the sound of it reverberating into him, her pulse thrumming rapidly against his mouth.

“So many things,” Diana whispered.

Steve dropped his forehead on her shoulder, his hand that slipped beneath the hem of her shirt while she wasn’t paying attention running absently along the base of her spine. She didn’t seem to mind.

“You’re laughing at me,” he muttered into the fabric of her shirt.

She drew back and caught his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her, her expression tender.

“No, I’m not,” she shook her head, her thumb stroking his cheek. “I’m here, right? You said so yourself. Right where I want to be.” Her eyes turned assertive. “Not necessarily here with you looking like this but--”

“You know that I can’t promise you that I won’t do anything dumb again, right?” He asked, twisting a lock of her hair around his finger, his face mock-solemn.

Diana leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead, making his heart flutter in his chest.

“As long as you do it for my honour.”

He was not going to live this down.

**Author's Note:**

> Why are they so adorable?


End file.
